So I've been thinking about this for awhile now and I've always sort of wondering how exactly these types of laws work and if there really is a double standard that I think there is. Perhaps if we have any officers they could clarify this for me. I'm mainly talking about the noise abatement laws dealing with vehicles whether it be exhaust systems or loud music. I've read the local laws of various states and cities dealing with noise abatement issues and they all pretty much say about the same thing, don't modify your car to purposefully make it louder than the stock exhaust system that comes with it. Doing so is considered illegal. Now heres the thing. As many people know I have a old fox body mustang that I've slowly built up over the years and it's a nice car but I will admit that it is LOUD. To the non car enthusiast folks it may just seem like its obnoxiously loud for no reason and to the car folks it sounds like a nice muscle car is supposed to sound, deep rumble. It's not obnoxiously loud like running straight pipes or drilling holes in the mufflers or anything like that. It has a full exhaust system including headers and since it's a 5.0 it's just sounds great. But yeah it does literally rattle stuff off the shelves in the garage when I start it up in there. I'm not complaining about the law in regards to myself per say, I've never gotten a ticket for having a loud exhaust but I did have a cop come up to me at a gas station and say "Man your car sounds great, just be careful I'm pretty sure its borderline too loud for the local laws so keep the rpms down in neighborhoods because there are a few people around here who will call us on you and we have to give you a warning telling you to "fix it" even though it's not technically broken". I thanked him and went on my way. When I went home I thought about what he said for a minute, I'd never had cops mention how loud the car was before and I honestly never even thought about the legality of it. I just always try to be respectful to my neighbors and whatnot by not driving the car in the early morning or late at night because I knew it was loud. I just never thought it would be illegal. Since then I have honestly been a bit nervous and I'm always looking around for cops when I drive around in the car wondering if they are going to follow me. Then I got to thinking about this. Yes its loud but its not THAT loud, even when driving down the road I can still hear the multiple chopper motorcycles riding around that are a good bit louder than I am... As loud as cars can be they still pale in comparison to the average harley. I don't think I have EVER heard a Harley that wasn't louder than my car. Those things come off the showroom floor sounding like that a lot of the times. Are the laws different for bikes vs cars? I've heard the main excuse people use for having loud motorcycles is to help get noticed and stay alive when driving since they are smaller profiles than cars. That makes sense, however, I am no fool and I know that is an argument people "use" to justify it but in reality people make their harleys loud because it sounds awesome pure and simple, all the other benefits are secondary. Now I'm not saying people should be free to just be obnoxious with complete disregard for anyone around them, but how come bikes get away with it and cars get in trouble for it? Now I get it, some people purposefully make their cars obnoxiously loud for no other reason than to be obnoxiously loud. People who run straight pipes or drill holes in the muffler do it on purpose. Unless you have a drag car there is literally no reason to have straight pipes. My car is loud because it has to be. Due to the power it has it has to have a larger exhaust system and better flowing headers. The stock exhaust system would literally choke the car. I didn't make it loud on purpose per say, it's loud out of necessity. But then again I never thought it was THAT loud until that cop mentioned it. I always just thought it sounded like a muscle car should sound... The same thing goes with people playing their music loud as hell. I personally hate that, I really do, I think anybody without the common decency to turn their music down to acceptable levels without bass rattling the cars next to them is an ignorant fool. But then I think about the harleys again. How come "that" type of loud noise is acceptable but blaring music is not? I hear the ignorant teenagers driving by with bass systems that shake my house all the time and I also hear people riding motorcycles that rattle the house all the time yet one of them will probably get in trouble and the other will not. I dunno maybe I'm just complaining to complain? Or being overly paranoid? I just find it a bit unfair. The cop himself even said that they don't really enforce the loud vehicle laws because there is pretty much no way to prove it and its way more trouble than its worth. He mentioned something about having to use a decibel meter to measure the sound if they wanted to write legit tickets for it and nobody cares enough to do that so they just issue warnings to say they did "something" if somebody complains about it. He said the main people they nail for that are those who tend to show off and gun the car down the street or dump the clutch or rev it up at stoplights or something like that. I don't do those things which is why I'm assuming nobody has ever bothered me about it until that day. I honestly just feel kind of bad and insecure about it now. None of my neighbors have ever said anything to me about it but now I'm wondering if they are annoyed by it but just don't want to say anything to me. I mean it's not much different than the people around here who wake up early in the morning and cut their grass at like 7am which is annoying. Not really justifying it to myself but I don't want to have my neighbors annoyed with me. I'm hoping they would tell me if they were upset but I do know that plenty of people are non confrontational. I don't drive it very often so maybe thats why they don't care too much. Now im just hoping I don't get a ticket for the thing. Never even crossed my mind before...I can't "fix it" if I got a ticket so I don't know what I would do...I will say that if I ever got a ticket for it I would certainly mention the thousands of ground shaking motorcycles that drive around here. If those guys are allowed to ride around sounding like that then I certainly should be able to do so as well.
Nah, don't worry about it. Your neighbors probably don't care about the sweet rumble emanating from your Mustang. But the day you decide to repeatedly lay on the accelerator for no discernible reason for an hour or more, you're gonna have problems, especially if at an unreasonable hour. Laws concerning noise probably exist simply so that something can be done in extreme cases, where someone is clearly creating a real nuisance, and again, on a repeated basis. On the topic of bikes, 'loud pipes do save lives'. My bike for example is very quiet, until I open it up. If you don't see me, you literally don't know I'm there. A car making a lane change while being unaware of my presence could mean game over for me. The 'profile' issue you mentioned is such a problem that it's been mandated that motorcycles must always have an illuminated headlight. This has reduced the number of accidents, but does nothing in cases where visibility is an issue. That said, some guys clearly use this line of thought as a b.s. excuse for the loudness of their bike. The sound of their bike is beyond 'noticeable', even on the freeway. A while back I ordered a new set of notoriously loud pipes for my bike (which I haven't installed yet), but like you worry about my neighbors, especially since I work third shift... also my bike is cold blooded, it has to idle at half choke for awhile before it's good to go... which of course means it's revving pretty hard and making a lot of noise. Here's what my neighbors have to look forward to at 10pm on most summer weeknights. I have this same model bike, and ordered the same exact pipes. Poor neighbors. [video=youtube;zMPLJUvYg4Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMPLJUvYg4Q[/video]
NEW YORK NY CLS Veh & Tr § 375 (2013) § 375. Equipment *** 31. Mufflers and exhaust systems. Prevention of noise. Every motor vehicle, operated or driven upon the highways of the state, shall at all times be equipped with an adequate muffler and exhaust system in constant operation and properly maintained to prevent any excessive or unusual noise and no such muffler or exhaust system shall be equipped with a cut-out, bypass, or similar device. No person shall modify the muffler or exhaust system of a motor vehicle in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the motor or exhaust system of such vehicle above that emitted by the muffler or exhaust system originally installed on the vehicle and such original muffler and exhaust system shall comply with all the requirements of this section. A muffler is a device consisting of a series of chambers or baffle plates, or other mechanical design for the purpose of receiving exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine, and effective in reducing noise. An exhaust system is a series of mechanical devices for the purpose of receiving exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine and expelling it into the atmosphere.
Loud music is more a pretext stop as long as you are white and not a punk 16 year old and turn it down. I have been pulled 5 or 6 times for that and never ticketed.
In what circumstance are you likely to hear a motorcycle rather than see it?. Put more colored flashing lights on all sides of it, and make them brighter in daytime. Strikes me that riding a motorcycle in its own circle of cacophony might drown out sirens and horns A car/bike doesn't have to be loud to sound good. If volume was the only criterion everyone would just cut their mufflers off. I literally HATE those little RoadRocket rice burners that sound like Leatherface and Saw have decided to open a Motorcycle shop and they can be heard for MILES.
Well I guess I was simply being overly paranoid when it came to my loud car. Like I said when the cop talked to me about it it sort of made the gears in my head start spinning in multiple directions and caused me to overreact. A few days ago I was letting the car warm up and I spotted one of my neighbors outside and went to chat with him and his wife. We talked for awhile and I casually asked them if my car was bothering them or if they could hear it in their house or anything. His wife said that she never even noticed it until I pointed it out. I pointed to it over there idling and she said that was the first time she's ever heard it. She then said not to worry about it because all of our neighbors are great people and they both thanked me for being considerate and even asking about it. I've always just been extremely nervous about bothering my neighbors simply because I hate being rude to people. Plus I am virtually half the age of everyone in this neighborhood, these folks are all elderly and retired and have lived here for decades in peace and quiet. I didn't want to be the younger guy who moved in here disturbing everyone. It makes me feel better to know I'm not disturbing the peace. But like the cop said although it is technically illegal to modify the car exhaust, plenty of people do it all the time for various reasons and unless you are being blatantly obnoxious then they tend to leave you alone. As with every other law or regulation in society it was brought about because of the lowest common denominator ignorant folks who have to have laws created to make them act right because they have no sense.
I would not know, I drive a Prius V..... Love it too. Quiet. As for the music, I have the common decency to leave my windows up because the music can be loud, especially if I have the techno/dance music station rolling. As for laws, I see the need for some, but some tend to be a bit obsessive. I feel that at certain times, we need quiet. Unfortunately, I am a light sleeper. The times I have posted on here should be very clear of that. If someone is being loud or making some sort of noise outside, it will wake me up and I rarely can get back to sleep. I think a lot of this comes down to a judgement call of the police if they are called out.
That's sort of where I get conflicted with myself. I personally can't stand the ignorant punks who blast their music super loud with the sub woofers rattling in the trunk with completely disregard for everyone around them. It's annoying, ignorant, and disrespectful. But to these punks they don't care, they pride themselves on being purposefully obnoxious and I have no issues with it when the cops give them tickets. However, then I get to thinking. What exactly is the difference between the guy with his music blaring and the guy with the loud car? At idle the car is loud but not overly loud but the second I press on the gas pedal it starts screaming. As I said this thing rattles stuff off the garage shelf when I start it up in the morning. I think the difference is that my loud car is loud for a reason, people who blare their music don't have a reason. Sure I don't have to have the car I could get a Prius such as yourself so I can't really say it's for a legitimate reason, but it does have a purpose. I don't have the ability to turn the car noise down but I can turn music down. All I can do while driving in residential areas is keep the rpms as low as possible to make the least amount of noise I can. I think I'm personally fine as long as folks at least TRY to be considerate. I don't mind passing a car on the highway who is blazing their music super loud with their subs rattling, but when you get to a stoplight turn it down because nobody wants to hear that. Just like people with aftermarket exhaust systems who sit at a redlight and rev the engine or burn out taking off. Nobody wants to hear that, be quiet, to me thats no different than the ignorant folks who blaze their music at the stoplights. Just this morning somebody came driving down the street past my house with their music blaring so loud that I could hear every lyric from one end of the block to the other. Completely rude and disrespectful. Perhaps I'm just overly considerate. I have a nice surround sound system hooked up in my home and whenever I play my music I literally go and stand outside to make sure that I can't hear it. If I can hear it from the edge of the driveway then I know its way too loud.
The community I live in has strict sound ordinances in place. The building I live in is a little older, so we do not hear what our neighbors are doing and we do not hear the outside activity. If we do hear it, then whomever it is, they are being way too loud. The police will roll up in here, as I live across the street from the 7-11 and if they can hear the noise, then they will check it out. I also live across from the pool and some later nights, people will be there, but onsite security has been known for kicking people out of the pool after 10 PM.
This post got me interested in how they determine unwanted sound levels. Generally for an Urban area they state decibel levels to be acceptable at 60db. There is also a frequency limit tied to the frequency response of the human ear. Basically, some sound frequencies will be more irritating than others because of the natural resonance of the human ear. So it is not only how loud the sound is but its frequency (wave-length). Distance from sound source is also a consideration as distance causes sound to dissipate. There are about 4 pages of technical jargon and formulas for determining sound. If your car is loud, and you have similar ordinances, I doubt anyone would be able to provide actual proof that your are running afoul of local law unless they had a sound lab full of instruments. My experience (as an electric guitar player in LOUD bands)....If there is a complaint, they'll come and shut you down. If your neighbors are cool with it, I see no problem.
Wait till you get an ******** neighbor... Ever had the police show up because you were having sex to loud? Or there's the "he was riding his bike on my lawn" call, even though it was on camera and I was not on her lawn. (I still got kicked out of that complex at the time) Or the, "he owns a firearm and it makes me uncomfortable" call. (The cops told her how it was on that one) Jesus I still hate that woman with a burning passion.
